Chapter 61: The Dancer (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Lu Mi didn’t rush to find Ryan Cos, Lyra, or Valentine; he headed straight for the Old Tavern, hoping for luck.

If that mysterious lady appeared, he had many questions to ask!

Since he’d already accepted the free gift, he’d inevitably pay a price later—better to take as much as he could while he could, as Aurora had suggested.

As soon as he entered the Old Tavern, Lu Mi’s eyes lit up instantly.

There she sat, in her usual corner seat, two emerald-green absinthes before her.

Two? She knew I’d come? Lu Mi walked over and greeted with a smile:

“Good morning.”

Today the lady wore a white blouse with vine-like embroidery at the collar, paired with a loose, beige ankle-length skirt, and a light red beret rested beside her hand.

Lu Mi, steeped in his sister’s magazines, recognized this as the latest trend in Triel.

The lady glanced up at him:

“It’s not early—it’s nearly noon.”

Isn’t this just to accommodate your schedule? Lu Mi muttered inwardly.

Seeing this mysterious lady instantly calmed his heart.

He sat down and spoke directly:

“I’ve run into a lot lately.”

The lady pushed one of the absinthes toward Lu Mi; the swaying green liquid seemed like the goddess of joy in every soul.

She didn’t say he could speak—or that he couldn’t.

Lu Mi lifted the glass, sipped lightly, and found the aroma rich, crisp, with a faint bitterness—different from the absinthe he’d drunk before.

“What’s this?” he asked, puzzled.

“Another kind of absinthe, popular in Triel lately. To distinguish it from the old kind, people call it absinthe-anise. Writers, painters, poets especially favor it.” The lady took a small sip herself.

Inside the clear glass, the green liquid seemed to shimmer with a hallucinatory hue.

Absinthe’s three main ingredients are wormwood, anise, and fennel; different distilleries vary their recipes slightly, some even adding lemon oil.

She’d gone to Triel for days just to bring back some absinthe-anise? Lu Mi couldn’t understand her behavior.

He didn’t ask. Instead, he told her everything he’d experienced—both reality and dreams.

The lady sipped her small glass of absinthe-anise, listening quietly as Lu Mi spoke.

“That’s about it. Is there any way I can master that mysterious dance in the shortest time possible?” Lu Mi cut straight to the point.

As for the key to breaking the cycle and the dream’s secrets, his past experience told him asking wouldn’t yield answers.

The lady gently swirled the emerald liquid in her glass and smiled:

“Without a supernatural enhancement to your flexibility, you’ll never learn it.

“Of course, you could force yourself through the movements—but you’d tear ligaments, rupture muscles. How would you hunt monsters then?”

Lu Mi was highly attuned to hidden meanings in others’ words:

“Is there any way to greatly improve my flexibility?”

The lady chuckled softly:

“That’s for you to find out.”

“...” Lu Mi was once again defeated by her vague hints.

If the person across from him were someone familiar and less mysterious, he’d have said two things:

“Explain clearly!”

“Don’t make me beg on my knees!”

As if hearing his inner voice, the lady added with a smile:

“The way to achieve supernatural flexibility lies within you.”

“Huh?” Lu Mi looked utterly confused.

The lady took another sip of absinthe-anise and sighed:

“Didn’t your sister teach you ritual magic?”

Lu Mi noticed that strange emotion in her eyes again.

“She did.” Lu Mi’s mind stirred. “Pray to myself?”

The lady studied him up and down, then laughed:

“Who do you think you are? What good would praying to yourself do?

“You can barely summon the weakest spirit-world beings—your inspiration’s all channeled into your body.”

Like his instinct for danger? Lu Mi roughly understood what the mysterious lady meant:

The Hunter’s spirituality had indeed strengthened—but mostly in inspiration, insufficient for ritual magic or other occult matters.

“Then what should I do?” Lu Mi pressed.

The lady sighed:

“Have you learned the Dual Ritual Method?”

“Yes.” Lu Mi nodded.

The lady sighed again:

“Thank goodness you have a sister. Otherwise, I’d have to teach you all this occult knowledge—so tiring, so tiring.”

So you avoid teaching ritual magic, meditation, spirit contracts, or supernatural languages because you find them annoying? After Aurora finishes, you show up? Lu Mi felt a surge of blood rush to his throat.

He took two deep breaths and said:

“The Dual Ritual Method requires an item closely tied to a deity or hidden entity—but I don’t have one...”

As he spoke, Lu Mi fell silent.

The lady smiled:

“You do.

“Remember now?”

Lu Mi pointed to his chest:

“The thorn symbol and that dark-blue-black symbol?”

The lady nodded, then warned:

“Don’t consider the dark-blue-black symbol. The essence of the Dual Ritual Method is extracting the divine power contained within the target object. If its power weakens, the balance you’ve painstakingly achieved will tip toward the bad side—and then...”

She didn’t finish, but her expression made Lu Mi grasp the unspoken meaning instantly.

In Aurora’s phrasing:

“Beyond saving. Just wait to die.”

“Was it the dark-blue-black symbol that protected me, preventing total corruption?” Lu Mi, with some occult knowledge, understood the term “corruption.”

“It was the Great Entity I mentioned that protected you,” the lady corrected sternly. “When you uncover the secrets of the Dream Ruins, I’ll tell you His true name—you can pray to Him directly.”

So it was that Great Entity who channeled power to seal the thorn symbol’s corruption within his heart, preventing full contamination? Lu Mi didn’t know if the Great Entity was good or evil, or if it had sinister motives—but at least in this matter, he felt a sense of closeness.

He thought for a moment and guessed:

“Use the Dual Ritual Method to steal the power represented by the thorn symbol?

“If that power weakens, the corruption lessens, and the seal grows stronger?”

“How can you call it stealing?” the lady rebutted. “It’s asking a deity for grace—only His power happens to be nearby, so He responds according to proximity. The Great Entity’s seal and a certain barrier’s weakening allowed His main body to remain unaware.”

Only someone who speaks in half-truths would phrase it like that... What’s the difference from stealing? Lu Mi grumbled inwardly.

Combining what the lady had said about divine grace and abnormal paths, he asked thoughtfully:

“Through the Dual Ritual Method, I pray to the power represented by the thorn symbol, asking it to grant grace and greatly strengthen my flexibility?”

“Something like that,” the lady nodded. “More precisely—ask it to grant you the power of the ‘Dancer.’”

“‘Dancer’?” Lu Mi thought of the “Noodle Man’s” behavior.

The lady sipped her absinthe:

“For the twenty-two paths beyond the standard ones, we still classify them from Sequence 9 to Sequence 0—for easier understanding, correspondence, and reference.

“Hmm... in a certain sense, the sequence divisions align with this world’s underlying rules.”

“The ‘Dancer’ corresponds to the thorn symbol’s Sequence 9, just as the ‘Ringbearer’ corresponds to its Sequence 4?” Lu Mi fired off several questions at once. “Can it enhance my flexibility, strengthen my spirituality, and let me master that mysterious dance easily?”

The lady smiled with satisfaction:

“Indeed. With occult foundations, communication becomes much easier—you don’t need me to explain everything again.”

Lu Mi asked eagerly:

“Then what are the names for Sequence 8, Sequence 7, Sequence 6, Sequence 5?”

“Sequence 8 is the ‘Begging Monk,’ Sequence 7 is the ‘Covenant-Bound.’ Oh, why do you need to know so much? Focus on mastering the ritual first—strive to become a ‘Dancer’ quickly.” The lady sounded slightly impatient.

“Begging Monk”... “Covenant-Bound”... Hearing these names, Lu Mi instantly made many connections.

“Begging Monk” was a real-world occupation, referring to certain members of major churches.

For instance, the Church of the Eternal Sun had split into multiple factions due to doctrinal differences; the two main ones were the “Brotherhood of Preaching” and the “Little Brotherhood,” also called the “Begging Monk Society.”

The former consisted mostly of clergy and Inquisitors of the “Purifiers,” emphasizing brutal suppression of heretics, cultists, and wild transcendentals to uphold the Eternal Sun’s orthodox doctrine.

The latter’s members were mainly in monasteries, with some church personnel joining; they advocated restraint of desire, begging and asceticism, spreading faith in the Eternal Sun to impoverished regions.

So whenever he heard “Begging Monk,” Lu Mi associated it with missionary work, asceticism, and special ritual magic.

As for “Covenant-Bound,” the first thing that flashed into his mind was the parish priest and the black mark on the mouth-monster.

Aurora had said it might be a remnant of a special covenant.

“The monster I killed was originally a ‘Covenant-Bound’?” Lu Mi asked in shock.

I actually killed a monster equivalent to Sequence 7?

The lady nodded slightly:

“Yes, the ‘Contracted One’ gains different abilities from various creatures by means of a special contract and divine witness provided by that entity—one contract, one ability.

“Their strength depends on what abilities they’ve acquired and how many they have; those who stray from the right path could easily be killed by ordinary people.

“In fact, within the transcendental realm, it’s common for less combat-oriented transcendents to be slain by those of lower sequences.

“Abilities matter, intelligence matters, and preparation beforehand matters just as much.”

PS: Requesting monthly tickets~

(End of Chapter)